General Assembly saves SCETV

COLUMBIA --- State lawmakers made it clear on Wednesday that they believe South Carolina ETV performs vital government functions, pointing to its emergency broadcast service and its role in law enforcement training and government transparency.

Both the House and Senate voted to override a trio of Gov. Nikki Haley's vetoes on funding for SCETV - including $574,000 for law enforcement training, $4.8 million for k-12 education and $513,000 for the broadcast of Budget and Control Board meetings.

The Republican governor had objected to the expenditures, arguing that ETV should be funded privately or put through a competitive bidding process.

But Rep. Kenny Bingham, a Lexington County Republican and House majority leader, said he had worked with Haley's office to craft a new way for state funding to reach ETV.

"The governor's office had asked us to do this very thing that now they turn around and veto," said Bingham during an angry floor speech that prompted cheers from his House colleagues.

"I am sick and tired of people politicizing this body and this General Assembly for their own personal benefit," he said.

Historically, ETV has received about $10 million in state money and raised slightly more in private funds. It also provides broadband services to private companies, which bring in about $143 million to the state, according to Bingham.

"There is no educational value in the second kick of the mule," said the lawmaker. "Once I've been kicked once, that's it."

The House voted to sustain eight of the governor's nearly three-dozen vetoes. On Wednesday evening, the Senate was still taking up vetoes. The line items were part of the $6 billion state spending plan for the fiscal year beginning in July.

Earlier debates over whether to appropriate any general fund dollars to SCETV had often taken a more partisan tone and centered around specific programming. At one point in the upper chamber, Sen. Clementa Pinckney, D-Jasper County, had countered Republican calls to phase out ETV, asking at one point, "What do you have against Big Bird?"